Not Quite Family
by AngelBaby
Summary: It's a normal day in Stars Hollow when a stranger comes over and announces that he is Jess's father and wants Jess to come home with him.
1. Stranger in Town

Not Quite Family

"Hi Luke!" Lorelei greeted the owner of the diner as she entered with her daughter, Rory. "So, how's life treating you?"

Rory sat down at their usual table and smiled up at Luke, "Can we please have coffee and scrambled eggs and toast?"

"Yeah, but don't try and mix decaf in with our coffee this time.  I can tell, you know." Lorelei grinned.

"Do you have any idea how bad this stuff is for you?  It's loaded with all kinds of dangerous things!  Caffeine is one of, if not the most, addictive drugs that is available."

Lorelei rolled her eyes, "Look, honey, I've been drinking coffee for as long as I can remember, I know it's addictive which is why I'd like some right now."  She smiled blissfully as she took her first sip of the coffee.

Luke sighed and walked away from the table, and it took Rory only two seconds to pull out a book to read.  Before long, Lorelei noticed that a strange man was entering the diner.  There was something about his eyes made him seem compassionless.  His entire face looked unhappy and drained.

"Have you ever seen him before?" Lorelei whispered to Rory so the man wouldn't hear.

Rory looked up from her book and glanced over to the man, "No, he's probably just passing through." The girl returned to her book.

"Hey!" The stranger shouted towards Luke, "You Luke Danes?"

Luke looked up from the counter that he was wiping down, "Yeah, who are you?"

The man ignored the question and asked another one of his own, "Is Jess here?"

"No, I don't know where he is." Luke looked at the visitor and set his cloth down.  He walked from behind the counter and crossed his arms over his chest, "Why do you want to know where he is?"

The man laughed and then his face became serious and his voice menacing, "I think I have every rights to know where that kid is."

Luke seemed unconvinced, "I am his legal guardian and I think I can decide who Jess sees or not."

"Not in this case" The man stared at Luke's eyes, "he's my son." 

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Thanks to everybody for reading this story.  Please review honestly, and let me know if you want me to continue.  This story is kind of AU (alternate universe) and takes place in the second season, before _Teach me Tonight_.  Make sure to say what you think, but don't be too brutal or else I'll probably feel really bad and end up deleting the story.  Anyway, thank you again for reading this and a million more thanks if you review.  I promise that if I do make a second chapter it will have a bit more meat to it.


	2. Friendly Conservation

Thanks to everyone who went and reviewed to my story.  Because so many people said that they wanted me to continue, I will.  This is going to be a Rory and Jess story for the most part.  There will very little of Luke and Lorelei in the same room together unless enough people feel that they need that to improve the story.  I'm having a bit of a problem making the chapters longer, but I'm working on it.

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Rory walked through the park, not really sure what she was heading.  It was hard to think that Jess had a father who suddenly came out of nowhere and wanted to have Jess come to live with him.  Her feet guided her to the bridge where she saw a lone figure, sitting quietly and throwing pebbles into the lake.

            "Jess?" Rory called out quietly, "Can I join you?"

            Jess looked up and shrugged, "I don't own the bridge."

            Rory looked down into the water, watching the ripples form on the surface of the water from the pebbles that Jess was throwing in.  "What are you going to do?" She asked quietly, uncertainly.

            "Does it really matter?" Jess responded and looked away and then continued, "I hate him.  I HATE him!  He left.  Who does he think that he is?  He leaves and thinks that he can come back and just expect me to welcome him with open arms." Jess shook his head and fell silent for a few seconds, "I just don't get it."

            Rory looked at him and sighed, "Maybe he had to leave.  Maybe it was the only way."

            Jess shook his head sorrowfully, "There is always another way, and he just didn't want to find it."  Jess rubbed his eyes tiredly then added in a hushed voice, "He just didn't want anything to do with me."

            "No, that's not true Jess.  It wasn't because of you." Rory quickly said and she put an arm around Jess's shoulder.

            Jess shrugged the arm off and looked at Rory with a sad look in his eyes, "Look Rory.  You're lucky.  You and your mom are best friends, you can tell her anything.  Even though your dad is not around very much, at least you know he cares.  You see your grandparents every week and you know that they would do anything to make you happy.  Anything.  My family has never been like that.  We've never been close like you guys are." Jess closed his eyes, "He never was around for me or my mom.  He was never around much while he was with my mom but he left when I was seven and I never saw him again."

            "Families get split up all the time Jess, it doesn't have anything to do with you." 

            "Look, Rory, you just don't get it." Jess stood up and dusted the dirt from his jeans, "No one in my family ever wanted anything to do with me.  My dad left, and my dad ditched me here!  The only reason I've been staying with Luke is because he didn't really get a choice in the matter.  The entire town hates me, they'd probably throw a party the day I left."

            "Jess, Luke cares about you.  Don't think that he doesn't, because you've heard the way he sticks up for you.  I do admit it, most of the town isn't exactly your fans, but they are all careful what they say about you when Luke's around.   Besides, it's not as if everyone hates you." Rory walked closer to Jess, "I definitely don't."

            Jess looked at Rory and realized he was looking at the only part of the town that he liked, "I know that you don't, but there are a lot of people in this town that do."

            "So, who cares what they think?  Don't waste your time with the people that don't like you, enjoy the time you spend with the people you like!"

            "Then I guess I should stop wasting time and start to enjoy it a lot more." Jess leaned forward and kissed Rory. 

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            Rory didn't back away even though she knew she should have.  Her mind was screaming out she was dating Dean, that she loved Dean.  At this moment what she knew and what she felt were two completely different things.  She closed her eyes as Jess' lips brushed over hers.  Still her mind screamed at her not to forget Dean.  Their relationship has already has already had enough struggles and the last thing she needed was to have another fight.  Rory pushed herself away from Jess and took a step back.

            "Jess, we should probably get back to the diner.  You can't hide forever.  Eventually they're going to think to look here." Rory pushed her hair behind her ears and smiled at Jess, trying to show him that she wasn't mad at him for kissing her.

            Jess nodded, "Yeah, it is a small town, if they did decide to look it would only take them about five minutes to find me."

            Rory started to walk off of the bridge with Jess before remembering a question that had not been answered. "You didn't answer my question.  What are you going to do?  Will you leave and go with your dad?"

            "I'm not really sure yet, there's so many questions I have to ask first.  He owes me an explanation for why he left and for why he suddenly decided to come back and find me."

            Rory nodded and thought of what she was going to slow, trying to word her question delicately, "If you had to pick right now, without knowing the answers would you leave or would you stay?"

            Jess nodded, "If I had to chose this very second, I'd chose to stay.  To be perfectly honest this town has changed me a lot.  I know that most people thing that I'm the rebel in this town, but I'm a lot better than I used to be."  Jess laughed and turned to Rory, "One day I'll have to tell you about what life is like living in a city, it might scare you though."

            "Hey, it's not like I'm locked in this town and never leave." Rory stopped in front of the diner and looked up at Jess, "Do you want me to go in with you?"

            Jess shook his head, "No, I'll be okay.  I just really want to know why."

            "Alright, I'll be at home so call me if you need to talk or anything, okay?  I'll be over in a microsecond."

            "Thanks.  I'll make sure to time you."  

            Rory walked away from Luke's diner towards her own house, desperately trying to figure out how she felt.  She was torn, half of her wanted to apologize to Dean for what she did, even though he didn't know.  The other half of her wanted to walk over to Dean and tell him that she was sorry but they couldn't see each other anymore.  Silently, Rory sat down on a bench and let the emotions run through her.


	3. Not so Friendly Conversation

            After such a long time of not updating I decided to give it a try.  This chapter has Luke talking with Jess' father (John)  The next chapter will have Jess talking with him.  Please comment on what you think of Jess' father so far, good bad or evil?  I'm really curious to think because I want to see if I'll surprise anyone with Jess' fathers reasons.  Anyways please review and it'll make me a happy ducky, and you all want me to be a happy ducky, don't you?

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"So Jess really has a father, huh?" Luke asked the man in front of him.

            "Why else would I come barging into a diner saying that I wanted to take Jess back with me?"

            "It's called small talk." Luke grabbed a rag and wiped the counter in front of him, "besides, sometimes it takes more than just blood to be a father.  Sometimes it takes some time.  I've never once heard Jess talking about all the fun you two had together.  He's never once mentioned how great you were or how he wishes you could be here."

            "Is this advice from experience?  I don't hear the pitter patter of children's footsteps.  There's no lady walking around here with a wedding ring on.  All I see is some guy standing around in a diner with a kid he doesn't want."

            Luke shook his head, "Jess can stay here as long as he wants, he's not a kid and can make his own decisions."

            The man shrugged and sat don on one of the chairs.

            "Out of curiosity, John was it?" Luke waited for a nod of acknowledgment, "where were you when Jess was growing up?  What was so important that you had to leave him and Liz alone?"

            "Last I checked, that isn't really your business, is it?" The man replied cold, "I had my reasons."

            "What, are you some sort of top secret spy or something?  Were you out protecting our country?  What the hell could have been more important than your family?" Luke shouted, he was shaking with anger.

            "Look, life happens," Jess' father began, the anger in his voice evident, "Sorry, but that's how things go.  Sometimes things happen and people just have to go along with it."

            Luke dropped the rag, "You were never there before and I don't' think Jess will want you to be here now.  You might not want to explain everything to me but you owe it to Jess.  After all he's been through he deserves a reason."

            Before more could be said Luke looked up to see Rory and Jess talking outside of the diner.  Jess seemed hesitant to enter "who could blame him for that?" Luke thought to himself.  The door opened and Jess entered, letting the door swing shut behind him.

            The teenager looked at Luke and nodded a greeting before turning to John, the father that had left him.

            "How about you two talk upstairs?" Luke suggested, "I'm sure you have a lot of discuss."

            Jess nodded and gestured for John to head up the stairs to the apartment above.  Before Jess could follow Luke grabbed his arm, "Just call if you need anything, okay?"

            "Okay," Jess responded in his usual manner.

Luke watched his nephew head up the stairs, and sighed unhappily.  The last thing he wanted was for Jess to leave.  He had gotten used to the one-word conversations, the sarcastic remarks, and the cluttered apartment.

            Luke retrieved the rag from where it had fallen and continued to wipe the counter while he lost himself in thought.


	4. Reasons

This chapter sort of becomes a little bit of a lecture in a way. Lots of 'don't do this' and 'don't do that' but hey, that's life. The next chapter will be really short and a bit dark, but it's open for change. Let me know what you want to happen and if enough people say they want the same thing then I'll try and work it in.

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I'm sure you have a lot of questions," John said as he took a seat on the couch, "but I want you to hear me out first. I know I was never there for you, and I know how hard it must have been for you. I want to make up for all that, though."

  
  


"It's kind of late to start playing catch up. Did you find out you have some disease and you'll be dead in a week or something? Let me guess, you couldn't just go without having one last heart-to-heart with me?" Jess spat out angrily.

  
  


"In a way, I did have a disease before but I'm cured now," the man looked Jess in the eyes, "For the longest time I was addicted to cocaine. Your mom and I always drank quite a bit, and one day I started to do drugs. The first time I tried cocaine I was hooked. Liz never did anything like that. If anything she sobered up a bit after seeing what our lifestyle was causing." John shook his head sadly, "I'm not proud of what I've done in the past and I know I owe you an apology."

  
  


Jess glared, "Okay, nothing new yet."

  
  


"I wish I could tell you that I left so you wouldn't have to watch me ruin my life. I wish I could say I left so you could have a good role model. I wish I could say those things but I promised myself that for once I'd say the truth. It's hard to k eep a steady job when your always high. Drugs are expensive, and so is raising a family. One day I got a paycheck and sat down to think. I really meant to pay the rent, buy groceries and all those things the money really should have gone to, but I didn't. I went out and got high. Liz was mad, of course, but she had some money of her own put away so we survived. Finally one day Liz told me I had to chose between her or the addiction."

  
  


"Let me take a guess which was more important to you." Jess muttered sarcastically.

  
  


The man suddenly seemed empty, "I packed up and left, I didn't think I needed Liz or you. I felt you were holding me back from great things. Really I was the one hurting myself. You and Liz were the only things that kept me from going to rock bottom. I lived on the streets for a few years. Let me say, when you're my age and living on the streets doing anything in your power to score your next hit, it's not cool."

  
  


"Hey, I could've told you that." Jess responded. He couldn't figure out how hearing this was supposed to help. His father just said that he left because he didn't care about his family and would rather not be around them.

  
  


"There was a 16 year old kid out there. He was an addict, like me. I remember that he kept thinking bugs were crawling all over him, so he kept scratching. Finally he scratched all the way down to the bone." The man shuddered at the memory, "One day he over-dosed and died. At the time it wasn't a big deal because that happened far too often. What did change was when a buddy of mine was killed. He owed money to a bunch of people but couldn't pay them back. I held him while he died. After that I realized that if I didn't start getting my act together then the same thing would happen to me. The next day I left the streets forever and got help. It's been a bumpy road ever since but I've done it. Every day is a struggle, but I know now that I can survive without drugs in my life. I'm clean now." The man smiled brightly as if the last three words were the sweetest sound to his ears.

  
  


"So where do I fit into this? How come you decided to come now and welcome me back into your life?'

  
  


"I started to remember that kid on the streets. Suddenly I was afraid that you would end up the same way. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you died because of my bad influence. I called Liz, and at first she wouldn't talk to me. Finally we started to talk and she mentioned that you've been in a lot of trouble lately. You've done damage to other peoples properties, you've stolen from people and you've been so bad that she had to send you away. She really does want what's best for you."

  
  


"Well, Liz does tend to over-react quite a bit." Jess replied, feeling ashamed for making his mother worry about him.

  
  


"She cares, you know. So do I. I decided to come and offer you a choice. You can come and live with me. Learn from my mistakes. You can go back to your old school, be with your old friends. Best of all, you and I will be able to catch up on lost times."

  
  


"How long have you been clean?" Jess asked.

  
  


"What kind of a question..." John began

  
  


"How long?" Jess repeated, "remember, you promised you wouldn't lie anymore."

  
  


"I left the streets eight years ago." The man replied under his breath.

  
  


"So it took you eight years to find out if I was even around anymore or not. What if you had been too late and I ended up being a failure, just like you? You say you want to be in my life but you never wanted it before. How do I know you're not just going to run off again?"

  
  


John stood up quickly, "Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me? To come here and tell you all of this stuff about my past? All of the stupid things that I've done? That's got to say something about the kind of person I am!"

  
  


Jess remained silent and John sat back down, "Liz said your not happy here. You want to go home. Here's your chance, come back with me and leave this crazy town behind." John's eyes met Jess', "Please come back."

  
  


Jess stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. It was true. This town wasn't his home. He only had one friend and he wasn't even sure if they would ever become anything more. For all he knew she could just be messing with him. "Alright, I'll think about it."


	5. Going Home

This is the last chapter. I might bring Jess's father back in future stories if people want more, but I will not add another chapter to this story. This chapter is short and just ties things up.

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"How much longer do you think the bus will be?"

Jess shrugged and looked at his watch, "It's probably just a bit late, it happens."

"This is your last chance to change your mind. I don't want you to think I rushed you into a decision or anything."

Jess shook his head and kicked at a rock by his foot, "I've made up my mind, there's no way I'll change it."

Jess watched as the bus drove up and stopped in front of them. He reached down and picked up one of the bags sitting onto the ground and put it into the storage area below the bus. John walked up the steps and turned around.

"I'm sorry you don't want to come with me Jess." He fumbled inside of his coat pocket before handing Jess a piece of paper, "Here's my phone number and address. Try and call me some time, okay?"

"Sure." Jess nodded and accepted the paper. He glanced at it and looked up to wave as the bus drove away.

Jess turned on his heal and rolled the paper into a ball, throwing it into the trash can nearby. He had better things to do than call some one who never cared enough to visit for so many years. The only person that he'd call tonight would be Rory. She promised that she'd think more about her relationship with Dean. Of course she'd decide to leave him, nobody can stay with some one an IQ that low for too long.

Jess continued walking to the diner and realized that he felt a lot happier than he had for a while. For the first since he had come to this town, he knew that he was going home to family.


End file.
